Large earthenware dish

Part of a gift to 19 museums by Joan Hurst through the Art Fund in 2002.

The decision to move from her 16th-century house near Eltham Palace in South London led Joan Hurst to donate much of her collection to the Art Fund for presentation to public collections. This magnificent gift consists of an eclectic range of items spanning some 800 years, and its sheer scale and variety-over 300 items, including textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, toys and nursery furniture, sculpture, paintings and drawings- reflects the wide-ranging tastes of this inveterate collector.

Among a host of Art Funded works at the museum, Walter Richard Sickert's oil painting Brighton Pierrots (1915), part of the Tate Collection, reflects well the local and international significance of the gallery. Sickert watched the eponymous theatre troupe on the Brighton seafront every evening for five weeks, making drawings in preparation for the final work.

The sense of loneliness which pervades the painting is characteristic of Sickert's late work. The effect is amplified by the presence of empty deckchairs, reminding us that the scene was captured during World War I.

Part of the Romano-British collection, the bronze Statuette of a stag dates from the first century AD. A rare piece, it was discovered just north of Brighton by an enthusiast with a metal detector. An Art Fund grant of £7,644 helped to save the sculpture from being exported.